Architecture is potentially related with art, and music is one of those ways that reflect best this relationship. So, as a result I’ve decided to mix both in a song that expresses quite well this relationship.
The rock song in question is “The old apartment” by Barenaked Ladies in 1996. In their song, the apartment they talk about is the main protagonist, even though, at the beginning the message was misunderstood by people. As he confirmed on an interview done by “Songfacts” in 2016, the main purpose was not the couple appearing in the history told to us but the yearn for the apartment that was so important for him years before, and also the anger of seeing how this iconic place for him had changed.
The relationship here though is the value this apartment had for him. So, architecture, as we can see, is able to create emotions, to generate feelings and to touch deep on someone’s hearts. This group of rock music explodes these feelings by writing an amazing lyric and a nice staging.
The musical instruments involved on this song were electric guitar, drum kit, double bass and electric piano. And all of them together formed what became the rhythmic track of the song.
The lyrics are as follows:
Broke into the old apartment
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry, broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls
Why did you clean the floor
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door
This is where we used to live
Why did you keep the mousetrap
Why did you keep the dishrack
These things used to be mine
I guess they still are, I want them back
Broke into the old apartment
Forty two steps from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord, narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live
Why did they pave the lawn
Why did they change the lock
Why did I have to break in, I only came here to talk
This is where we used to live
How is the neighbor downstairs
How is her temper this year
I turned up your T.V. and stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don’t live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me, her body keeps me warm and I’m happy here
This is where we used to live
Broke into the old apartment
Tore the phone out of the wall
Only memories, fading memories, blending into dull tableaux
I want them back
I want them back
This is where we used to live
I want them back
This is where we used to live
I want them back
This is where we used to live
I want them back
After all the analysis done, my personal opinion goes straight following critics opinion. Maybe is not a genere that everybody likes but it is a transmitting song that when analysed becomes even more charming. They found a nice way on relating architecture and music. The history of that guy they talk about becomes the perspective of any of the audience empathising with his emotional mood of anger mostly. That makes this song letter perfect for a rock group. Even though I don’t usually listen to rock music I found it amazing as your mood instantly changes when listening to it. No way you stay motionless, you must feel on a high.
